Italian Olfactory Identification Test (IOIT): a new quantitative test for the olfactory function. Results in patients with Parkinson's disease.

摘要

Introduction A deficit in the olfactory system isn't a rare clinical condition. Recent studies suggest that almost 5% of people show a significant reduction in olfactory function (1); this percentage is higher in older people (2). Frequently subjects with olfactory deficit aren't aware of their deficit, but the alteration can be detected with specific standardized tests. In Parkinson's disease (PD), there's a marked olfactory impairment (3-4) and this one can be revealed with specific tests even in the very first stages of this disease. There are both clinical and pathological elements (5) that allow us to suppose that this sensorial deficit could precede the appearance of motor symptoms in PD. Therefore hyposmia could represent an important pre-clinic marker of this disease and, maybe, of other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. For these reasons the development of new olfactory tests, which can be easily and rapidly used in a clinical and experimental setting, could be useful.